US prices rose at a 3% annual rate in September, slightly beating forecasts

Increase was largely driven by a 4.1% increase in gasoline prices despite Trump’s campaign pledge to ‘end inflation’

Prices continued to rise in September, increasing at an annual rate of 3%, according to the latest government inflation report.

The September 2025 consumer price index (CPI) was published approximately two weeks later than usual due to the federal government shutdown, which halted all Bureau of Labor Statistics operations.

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First Thing: Trump backs down on sending federal troops to San Francisco

Protesters flood streets in show of resistance. Plus, our architecture critic on Trump’s bulletproof ballroom bling

Good morning.

Donald Trump has canceled plans for a deployment of federal troops to San Francisco that had sparked widespread condemnation from California leaders and sent protesters flooding into the streets.

What did Trump say about his change of mind? Trump confirmed he had a conversation with the city’s mayor, Daniel Lurie, writing on social media: “I spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around.”

What are current tariffs on goods from Canada? Washington originally imposed a 25% tariff on imports of goods including timber, steel, aluminum and cars in the spring, prompting retaliatory action from Ottawa. The rate was raised to 35% by Trump in August.

How did Carney respond to Trump’s fusillade? His office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment last night. The prime minister was due to leave on Friday morning for a summit in Asia, while Trump is to do the same on Friday evening.

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Eric Adams to endorse Andrew Cuomo in New York City mayoral race

Adams revealed decision in a New York Times interview a month after calling Cuomo a ‘snake and a liar’

The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, will endorse Andrew Cuomo in the city’s mayoral race, following months of tension between the two Democrats turned independents.

Adams revealed his intention in an interview with the New York Times a month after he ended his own re-election campaign which saw him register poor polling numbers.

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Revealed: police across US spread false rumors about Venezuelan gang threats

Claim that Tren de Aragua planned to attack officers was widely shared – only for FBI to later acknowledge it was mistaken, internal files show

An unverified rumor that Venezuelan gang members were preparing to kill police officers spread like wildfire through US law enforcement agencies last year, internal records reveal, only for federal officials to later quietly acknowledge the claim was mistaken.

The intelligence report, which appears to have first been disseminated by a local New Mexico police department in July 2024, suggested that the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang had directed its members to “fire on or attack” law enforcement. The vague assertion quickly traveled among law enforcement agencies. It even made its way into a formal proclamation by the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, and was repeated by Republican Congress members as evidence of the dangers of Venezuelan immigrants and Democrats’ border policies.

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Pregnant women report medical neglect in ICE detention, rights groups say

Women report miscarriages, delayed care, being shackled and being held in solitary confinement, letter says

Pregnant women have reported bleeding, miscarriages, being shackled and other instances of medical neglect while in US immigration custody, according to a group of prominent civil rights organizations.

The groups – which include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its Louisiana chapter, the National Immigration Project, Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, Sanctuary of the South and Sanctuary Now Abolition Project – sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Senate committees on Wednesday, describing interviews with more than a dozen women.

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Trump poised to send scores of federal agents to San Francisco

Newsom calls move ‘right out of the dictator’s handbook’ as agents prepare for key immigration enforcement operation

The Trump administration appeared poised to send dozens of federal agents to the San Francisco Bay Area for a major immigration enforcement operation, prompting condemnation from California leaders.

Details of the deployment were still emerging, but it will reportedly involve more than 100 federal agents, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The agents are reportedly set to begin using the US Coast Guard base in Alameda, a city located across the bay from San Francisco. It remained unclear whether national guard troops would also be involved.

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US demands EU reverse new climate rules to allow surge in gas imports

US and Qatar say new rules will hinder imports of LNG, posing ‘existential threat’ to European economies

The US has demanded that the European Union roll back its climate and human rights rules in order to allow greater imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), as the Trump administration approved a controversial gas export hub along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

A letter jointly sent by the US and Qatar, two of the three largest LNG exporters in the world, warned the EU that its new rules pose an “existential threat” to European economies as they would hinder imports of gas from countries such as theirs.

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Trump administration considering curbs on exports to China made with US software

Plan would include everything from laptops to jet engines, to retaliate against Beijing’s latest round of rare earth export restrictions

The Trump administration is considering a plan to curb a dizzying array of software-powered exports to China, from laptops to jet engines, to retaliate against Beijing’s latest round of rare earth export restrictions, according to a US official and three people briefed by US authorities.

While the plan is not the only option on the table, it would make good on Donald Trump’s threat earlier this month to bar “critical software” exports to China by restricting global shipments of items that contain US software or were produced using US software.

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Albanese has worked out a way to deal with Trump – even if there are areas where they don’t see eye to eye

The warmness shown by the US president was held up as vindication of the PM’s foreign policy acumen, and the nerve he had shown in not begging for an earlier meeting

Outside the White House cabinet room hangs a painting of Donald Trump flanked by Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, in front of a billowing American flag.

The fan-fiction rendition of three Republican leaders, proudly displayed on a main thoroughfare amid a gallery of other photographs and portraits of Trump, is far from the oddest thing in the home and office of the 47th president. The White House is a homage to gilding and gold, crown moulding daubed in glittering paint, with knick-knacks gaudy and glistening stuffed on to his shelves, a Diet Coke button on his desk, and a new ballroom requiring the partial tear-down of the historic East Wing.

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Speaker Mike Johnson says he won’t block House vote to release Epstein files

Johnson’s House has been in recess since shutdown, delaying petition to force vote on making documents public

The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, on Tuesday said he would not prevent a vote on legislation to make the Jeffrey Epstein files public, even as the chamber remained out of session for a fourth straight week.

Johnson has kept the House of Representatives in recess ever since the shutdown began at the start of the month, after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on extending government funding beyond the end of September.

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BBC reporters cannot wear Black Lives Matter T-shirts in newsroom, says Tim Davie

Director general says it is inappropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue ‘to be campaigning in that way’

BBC journalists cannot wear T-shirts in the newsroom supporting the anti-racist movement Black Lives Matter, the corporation’s director general Tim Davie has said.

Davie said the BBC stood against racism but it was “not appropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue to be campaigning in that way.

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Florida politician faces backlash over calls for mass deportation of Indians

Chandler Langevin faced censure from Palm Bay council and calls to resign from series of posts condemned as ‘vile’

A city councilmember in Florida is facing backlash from national Indian American organizations, members of Congress, and local residents after posting a series of social media messages that insulted Indian people living in the US and called for them to be deported en masse.

Chandler Langevin, a Palm Bay council member elected last year, made derogatory comments about Indian people across several posts on the social media platform X over roughly three weeks this fall. He claimed that Indians come to America to “drain our pockets” before returning to India, “or worse … to stay”.

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George Santos says prison sentence was ‘disproportionate’ but ‘large slice of humble pie’

Disgraced former congressman who was meant to serve seven years for fraud and identity lashes out at critics

Disgraced former US congressman George Santos said on Sunday that his prison sentence had been “disproportionate”, but that he had been served “a very large slice of humble pie”, while lashing out at his critics in his first interview since Donald Trump commuted his sentence.

Speaking to Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union, Santos said he was “all politicked out”, and called for his former campaign staffer, Sam Miele, to also receive a commutation.

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Trump calls Colombia president ‘illegal drug dealer’ as US says it hit another ship

Trump vows to cut US funding as Pete Hegseth says US hit Colombian rebel group vessel and ‘three terrorists killed’

Donald Trump on Sunday accused Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, of being an “illegal drug dealer” and threatened to immediately cut US funding to the country as the defense secretary confirmed in a social media post an attack on a vessel associated with a Colombian leftist rebel group.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday that US forces had attacked another vessel, this time associated with a Colombian leftist rebel group. Hegseth, in a post on X, said “three terrorists were killed” in the operation which was “conducted in international waters”.

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Major highway in California to shut down as US marines fire live artillery over it

Highway patrol announces last-minute, multihour closure due to military celebration including 155-mm artillery shells

A celebration marking the US marines’ 250th anniversary will shut down a major freeway artery through southern California on Saturday as the military plans to fire live 155mm artillery shells over the site.

The California highway patrol announced the closure at 6am Saturday, saying it would shut down an approximately 17-mile (27km) stretch of Interstate 5 for four hours near Camp Pendleton, a 125,000-acre (50,585-hectare) base in Oceanside in north-western San Diego county. The closure will remain in effect from 11am to 3pm.

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Vermont Republican lawmaker resigns over racist and antisemitic group chat

State senator Samuel Douglass, 26, and wife, Brianna, both made comments in Young Republicans Telegram group

A Vermont state lawmaker has resigned over racist and antisemitic chat messages that circulated within the Young Republican political group, another substantial consequence in a scandal that on Friday saw the New York state Young Republicans’ charter revoked.

State senator Samuel Douglass, the only elected official known to have taken part in the leaked group chat exposed by Politico, resigned Friday over his participation.

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Millions expected across all 50 US states to march in No Kings protests against Trump

Events scheduled in more than 2,700 locations, from small towns to large cities, aligning behind message that the US is sliding into authoritarianism

Americans across all 50 states will march in protests against the Trump administration on Saturday, aligning behind a message that the country is sliding into authoritarianism and there should be no kings in the US.

Millions are expected to turn out for the No Kings protests, the second iteration of a coalition that marched in June in one of the largest days of protest in US history. Events are scheduled for more than 2,700 locations, from small towns to large cities.

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Trump says he has commuted sentence of George Santos in federal fraud case

Former Republican US representative walks free after being sentenced in April to more than seven years in prison for deceiving donors and stealing identities of 11 people

Donald Trump announced on Friday he had commuted the sentence of George Santos, the disgraced former New York representative and serial fabulist who had been sentenced to more than seven years in prison after a short-lived political career marked by outlandish fabrications and fraudulent scheming.

Santos left the Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in New Jersey just hours later and was “on his way home”, his attorney Joseph Murray told Agence France-Presse by phone late on Friday.

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At least 15 detained after protesters and police clash outside Chicago Ice center

Officers reportedly tackled and dragged several people after authorities told demonstrators to stay in ‘protest zones’

At least 15 people were taken into custody outside the Broadview Ice detention center in the Chicago area after heated confrontations between Illinois state police and protesters on Friday.

Authorities had instructed demonstrators to remain in designated “protest zones”, but tensions escalated when officers moved to clear the roadway.

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Trump officials ask supreme court to permit national guard in Illinois

Justice department submits emergency filing as Trump pushes to expand use of military in Democratic-led cities

The Trump administration on Friday asked the US supreme court to permit the deployment of national guard troops to Illinois, as the president pushes to expand the domestic use of the military in a growing number of Democratic-led cities.

In an emergency filing, the justice department urged the court to overturn a lower court ruling that halted the deployment of several hundred national guard troops to the Chicago area. The district judge had raised doubts about the administration’s justification for sending troops, questioning its explanation in light of local conditions.

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